This blog is about being an assemblage artist living in Vancouver, BC. I use it to showcase my art, techniques, events and my travels.

Sunday, August 17, 2014

BERLIN!

The second half of my trip was two weeks in Berlin. Our apartment was fabulous....penthouse with wrap around deck with views of the river, old museum buildings and churches. Again we do the European thing which is walk, look at art and go to cafe's. I have divided up the photos by categories like architecture, art, fun stuff, history, etc.....

ENJOY!

MUSIC:

music hall at the Gendarmenmarkt, Berlin ...there is a church at either end of this magnificent square

music club we did not go to

The Spiegelsaal Dance Hall since the 40's

drum set at the Spiegelsaal

ARCHITECTURE:they have been building madly in Berlin over the past few years. There are cranes everywhere. Lots of modern as well. Just a few squats left.

colourful

modern

The main train station in Berlin

reminds me of cardboard

churches

this church was bombed and the whole middle is gone

even though it is open to the air now they still have amazing events

another damaged church

the view from our apartment

museum island

a bauhaus building

our sunset view of the new Synagogue

The Berliner Dom: TheBerlin Cathedral was built in 1894, bombed in 1944 and the whole dome collapsed. In 1975 they started 18 years of restoration to complete what we see today. It was a main part of our view and I photographed it a lot. I also went and toured through it.

the basement had about 50 of these coffins in it

stairs to the top...a long climb

all the statues are different around the dome

view from above

odd and unusual

place to sit and play or hear music

love this entrance...carpet is painted on

old building - modern art

fountain

modern art gallery

stairway to?

precise garden

love the curtains

fabulous hoarding

the building is huge...this is less than 1/4 of it

wow...bronze door

so many layers

modern sculpture in West Berlin

bridge details

STATUES:

GRAFFITI: quite a few of these photos are from the "wall"

love this poster

CAFES:

HISTORY:

the wall going up and people stuck on one side or the other....families separated for years

wall coming down

love this photo mural

I learned a lot about the history...did not realize how it was divided up

got my passport stamped at Check Point Charlie

this side of the wall is the "no holds barred" side and the other has more commissioned murals

east meets west

the mural side had some lovely, poetic, political and sad messages

me at the wall

an old Jewish cemetery with a mosaic mural

detail of the tiles below

another tile detail

The Holocaust Memorial 2005 by Peter Eisenman at a cost of E25 million

almost 5 acres with 2711 concrete slabs or stelae

FUN STUFF:

every night this small square hosts different dances..this was ballroom night

they have food trucks too

not sure what this truck does but I like it

and of course the coffee truck

words to ponder

a cockroach out of the side of a building...hmm not sure.

everyone loves a snowman

the green man was a traffic icon in East Berlin and is one of the few communist symbols left

Kevin and I spent a few hours catching up at this champagne bar in KaDeWe

delicious!

champagne with cosies

I did a bike day with a ride with Levon through Tiergarten Park stopping for lunch and then visited Tiffany & Co at KaDeWe (the largest department store in Europe) and then upstairs to meet Kevin at the champagne bar.

Levon making some points....I did not understand one thing when I went to the game but some people explained for me.

Kendall 8 points against their star player Delaney with 7! Yah Levon

Munich celebrating winning the championship

Munich receiving the trophy! Was very exciting and I learned a lot about sports.

ART: Went to the Martin-Gropius-Bau art museum and saw the absolutely fantastic David Bowie show which had his unbelievable collection of memorabilia. He kept everything so on display was drawings, costumes, films, photos, journals with handwritten lyrics, videos of his concerts and his instruments. It had also been in England and was put together by the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Also at that museum was a show by Ai Wei Wei with his biggest show to date (3000 sq meters in 18 rooms) and a retrospective of Hans Richter highlighting film, assemblage and paintings.

Ai Wei Wei 6000 Chinese Stools

they create a wood floor above the museum floor

This re-constructed rubble is from his studio in China that was demolished by the government as a way of punishing him. He eventually ended up spending 18 months in jail for his outspokenness.

His photo project of giving the finger at historic and political sites

crabs installation

wall detail of crabs installation

memorial installation made from reclaimed re-bar from 2008 quake which killed 5000 school children in Sichuan

his painted ancient pots

detail from Circle of Animals

Circle of Animals

pile of doors made from marble

love his bicycle installations

this is a giant wax painting by Norwegian painter Olav Christopher Jenssen

The Boros Collection is contained in this bunker which has been a prison, banana storage, emergency safe house and now holds the families minimalist art collection from German and European artists. If you go you have to make an appointment 2 months in advance and make sure you take the "English" tour. It is fantastic. The family lives on the top floor when in Berlin. Thanks for the tip Landon.

The Boros Bunker

Installation in reception

Love the poster art from this era

I bought Arnt this one and it is the 1934 Workers Olympic poster

I bought this painting in Prague for myself.

Just Legs

Rock art

This piece honours the acceptance of gay life in Berlin with a film inside

cool

super shiny stainless steel sculpture

fake man on ladder

more man on ladder

chair in park

nice orange bike

art is everywhere...these are construction cement weights

We went to a privately owned museum called ME. This fellow Olbricht just started collecting 12 years ago and has amassed the most amazing "Cabinets of Curiosity" I have every seen. Thanks Kevin for the heads up! His collections from all over the world are made from bone, stone, precious gems, shells, gold, wood, silver and some taxidermy animals. Each piece really is exquisite. There are over 200 pieces in the permanent collection.

Also at the same time was an exhibition by costume jewelry, painter
and installation collector Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, which was curated by a 90 year old woman from
Guatemala. Each cabinet held at least 50 pieces and was colour
co-ordinated...beautiful!

This painter spent a year in Venice painting himself...at first I did not like them but once I spent some time with the series I really liked it. Part of her collection as well.

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About Me

I have been an artist for over 20 years. As I travel in different countries, including my own, I find I need to create art to continue my experience and memories of those places. My assemblage pieces consist of found objects combined with my photographs and treasures collected during my travels. Once in the studio I take from my myriad of labeled boxes an object that I want to start with and combine it with other objects, text, photographs usually constructed in a found box to tell the story.